Once upon a time, two friends lived in the same village. They earned money for food by working for hire. But at the time we are talking about, heavy rains began to fall, and the friends were left completely without work, and therefore without food. And when everything to the last crumb was eaten, they decided to go in different directions, taking with them their only asset - a knife - let everyone try their luck separately.
One of the friends walked and walked and in the evening came to the cemetery. Here, among the graves, he found a dilapidated gazebo and began to settle down for the night. Before he could fall asleep, he woke up again from the cold. Looking around, he tore a few pieces of wood from the ceiling of the wooden gazebo and lit a small fire. Soon, out of nowhere, they flew to the scab of ghosts.
“I sense the human spirit,” muttered one of them.
“One, two, three, four, five,” the man was not at a loss. - There are six with me. Where should a person be here?
The ghosts gradually calmed down and started talking.
-Where is the gold buried here? - the man asked at random.
– Why do ghosts care about gold? We don't need gold.
– I just asked for the sake of a nice word. We need to talk about something.
– The gold is hidden in the left corner of the gazebo.
Pretending that this did not interest him, the man switched the conversation to something else.
When dawn came, the ghosts disappeared. And the man took out a knife and began to dig the ground in the place pointed to by the ghost. He dug and dug, and finally his knife came across something hard. The man looked and couldn’t believe his eyes - there was so much gold there. He took a small part of those treasures, bought land, built a house, then got married and lived happily ever after.
Meanwhile, his friend returned home. He walked around many villages, but returned back with nothing.
He approached his friend who had become rich with questions: where did he get such happiness from? And your friend laughs it off, it doesn’t matter where they come from.
“Take,” he says, “as much gold as you need, and when you run out, come again.” I don't feel sorry.
So the friends lived in harmony and prosperity, and when the gold ran out, the poor man went to the rich man, and he never refused him anything.
But the poor man's wife lost her peace.
“Find out the secret of how your friend got rich,” she repeated day and night.
The poor man began to pester his friend with requests: tell me the secret of how you were lucky enough to get rich.
Finally, the friend could not stand it and told everything as it happened.
The next night, blinded by greed, the poor man went to the cemetery. He found a gazebo, just like his friend, lit a fire and waited for the ghosts to arrive. Soon the ghosts actually arrived, sat down around the fire, and then one of them, moving his nose to the sides, said:
- Human spirit!
The poor man was speechless from fear. His arms and legs were paralyzed. The ghost rose from his seat and began to count:
- One, two, three, four, five... Oh, someone is superfluous here! - it said and began to grab everyone by the noses, while the noses became long, like an elephant’s trunk.
Morning came, the ghosts disappeared, and the poor man with the long nose returned home. The poor fellow tried everything - spells, and all sorts of lotions - nothing helped him.
Then his cunning wife advised him to turn to a friend for help.
A friend responded quickly to his misfortune.
“Don’t worry, I’ll help you out,” he said.
At midnight, taking a knife, he went to the cemetery. Just like the first time, I lit a fire near the gazebo and waited for the ghosts to appear.
– It smells like the human spirit! - said one of the ghosts.
And the man, like last time, counted all the ghosts: one, two, three, four, five - and said:
- There are six with me, where can a person be here! The ghosts calmed down and little by little began to talk.
– How can you cure a person from a disease in which the nose becomes long, like an elephant’s trunk? – the man asked as if by chance.
– What do we, ghosts, have to do with this?
– Yes, just by the way, I had to ask, so I asked.
“In one widow’s house there is a pestle, they use it to pound pepper.” You need to tap your nose with this pestle and it will become shorter.
At dawn the ghosts disappeared. Returning home, the good man did everything as the ghosts advised and saved his friend from his ugly nose.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru